Effectiveness of a Method for Teaching Self-Compassion to Communication Sciences and Disorders Graduate Students

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of a daily mindfulness practice and 2 types of journaling on participants' development of self-compassion.

Method: This was a between-groups design. All participants in a graduate counseling course engaged in a short daily mindfulness practice at the beginning of every class. Participants were randomly assigned to a counseling journal or a gratitude journal group. Participants were to write in their journals 2 to 5 times a week for the duration of the class. Participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003) and a questionnaire created by the 1st author before any mindfulness sessions were held and again at the completion of the course.

Results: Participants' level of self-compassion increased from pretest to posttest. The self-compassion scores of participants who kept counseling journals increased more than did those of participants who kept gratitude journals. Qualitative data indicated that participants believed that mindfulness was an important quality for clinicians to possess and that they were accepting of the daily mindfulness practice.

Conclusions: Engaging in a 12-min daily mindfulness practice utilizing simple yoga postures, breath work, reflective writing, and journaling done at a separate time appears to be an effective technique for increasing students' levels of self-compassion. Maintaining a counseling journal as opposed to a gratitude journal appears to enhance the effect of the daily mindfulness practice on self-compassion.